SEPARATION FROM GOD

I remember a story of Charles Haun (my Bible Teacher) when he was on a platform waiting to minister in a church and the pastor leaned forward and whispered, "there are sinners here today." Charles somewhat puzzled replied, "that is good I like sinners. As a matter of fact some of my best friend are sinners." The pastor slid back in his seat. I wonder why so many Christians do not like sinners? There seems to be this big, "them verses us thinking" in the church today. Ah they are sinners we cannot have anything to do with them. Foolishness just foolishness! Funny if Jesus can eat with sinners I wonder why some Christians have such a hard time? In Luke we read, "And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee's house, and sat down to meat." (Luke 7:36) Maybe it is because Christians not wanting to identify with their old life and I can buy into that somewhat, but wait a minute the Bibles says we all were sinners. "Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference: 23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;" (Romans 3:22-23) Yes for those who have accepted the finished work of Christ on the cross once were sinners, but now we walk in the newness of life, a new creation in Christ Jesus yet still with a nature in us that could pull us back into our old way of living if we do not continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of our LORD Jesus Christ. There is no neutral in the LORD either we are moving forward in Christ or we are back pedaling. You know I believe the LORD is more concerned about our coming short than He is of our sin. After all Jesus dealt with our sin, but He did not deal with our coming short. With things like our character, our integrity, honesty, and so many other SMALL things we think God is not so concerned about. This thinking whereby sin separates (even thinking we are better than sinners) us from God and other people in the world who are not Christians can go deep into our walk with God and man. I know in the past I have caught myself thinking such delusional thoughts. Could this be also why most churches are becoming obsolete? Is it because most Christians do not talk to people who need Jesus? Most Christians today hide and wait in a church building ready to pounce on some poor deranged sinner (in the Christians thinking) when (if) they come to church, but to meet the sinner in the market place, door knocking, or some type of evangelism outreach (something most churches never do) well this rarely happens. Most Christians in churches today have little to no spiritual wherewithal (because of the lack of spiritual teaching and the dumbing down of the Gospel message) to be able to discern if someone is even saved, filled with a demonic spirit, and have no opportunity to experience failure and growth in their walk with the LORD. It seems to be all about denominational agendas: reports to fill out, money to give (maybe pay back) to headquarters, even a rice bowl to protect. I believe denominations have done more to prevent (around the world) the sharing of the Gospel message than Satan. I have seen the lack of spiritual discernment and the denominational control and manipulation (around the world) in action and it is troubling to say the least. Here is a example. One Sunday night (when we lived in Jacksonville) we stopped by one of those "Non-denominational denominational" (non-denominational in name, but belongs to a network of 1,000s of churches) church just to see what it was like. Well with our Bibles in tow we went in and sat near the back of the church as the service had already started. Before we could get comfortable some people came up to us and started to ask questions not the typical pumping for information, but they started asking us if we were saved. Are you sure you are saved? How long have to been saved. What makes you think you are saved? This went on for some time till I asked the people to just leave us alone. They did, but later another group of people assaulted us with the same tactic. We repelled this second wave of attack by saying (in a more forceful tone) "buzz off and leave us alone." They left and as we looked around the big crowd we were the among the oldest people in attendance. This told me a lot. This told me there was not much spiritual growth or discernment in the people very zealous, but had not much wisdom. During the altar call we were attacked for the third time and was begging us to come down to the altar to give our hearts to the LORD, well I had enough and greatly pushed back to this immaturity. We left that night and never came back. Over the years 15 in the Jacksonville and Sneads Ferry area we have seen the lack of opportunity to serve, learn, and even be trained in service for the LORD seems to have fallen by the wayside for a more comfort driven routine and "just too much work involved attitude." We have attended and visited many churches in these 15 years, but I am not sure what the end means of our going to church there was. Please let me stop here. I do not want to seem like I am running down the pastors of these churches, but want to say we love these pastors and the people very much and for the truth to be known we want only to see God move in the lives (ours too) of these wonderful people. In hurtful and confusing times I understand clearer, "Open rebuke is better than secret love. 6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful." (Proverbs 27:5-6) But almost every service we attended was a cookie cutter service. On Wednesday night the same routine: prayer, offering, and preaching by the pastor. The Sunday morning service was about the same routine with a few songs added before the pastor's prayer and preaching. Now the point is there is no reason for the people to come to church except to give money to the church, hear the pastor minister, and attend the traditional fellowship dinners such as Valentine's Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Party, with each other. Most if not all had no discipleship program, no evangelic outreach strategy to reach the community, no weekly Bible (maybe ladies and men) study (except for the Wednesday night service) or no home group meeting where relationships are built. And why? I think most of the people do not really want to get involved, but again the point I am trying to make is there is no opportunity for personal ministry, no means for discipleship, nor is there a vision to reach the community all three critical elements of a healthy spiritual church that affects the community in a positive way. Let us face it if we are not affecting the community for God and people are not coming to the LORD then we have turned our budget and hearts inward toward the members and become a fortress daring a sinner to come and kick down our doors. If our congregation does not reflect (even in color) the community there are some things going on that needs to be addressed by God and the people. There is a great book, Autopsy of a Deceased Church by Thom S. Rainer I recommend all pastors take a read. It is small you can read it in two days or less, but do yourself a favor prayerfully read it because it is filled with wisdom from God that is needed to stop (grave yard dead) this decline and even departure of the Gospel message in the United States. For better or worse (I vote worse) America has chosen the structure of churches (we really know we are the church) as the means for people in America and the world to hear and spread the Gospel message and yes church denominations have capitalized on this notion and exploited it for money, influence, and power. I have written in the past how I believe the early church got off track and developed this structure for commonness and support, but in the beginning the Christians met (Acts 2:46) house to house breaking bread. I also believe, mind you very slowly, we will be going back to house meetings if the LORD tarries. Wow looks like the Holy Spirit had me drift some so please let me get back on target. I will be honest I do not know why people say sin separates us from God. On the contrary I would say sin draws the LORD closer to man if man makes a move towards the LORD. Now do not get me wrong here we should never go towards sin so that the LORD can forgive us. Nor should be ever languish in sin again and again (enjoying the pleasure for a season) knowing the LORD will forgive us. Paul addressed this issue and thinking with the Christians in Rome, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" (Romans 6:1-2) But believe it or not this wrong thinking "cheap grace" is being taught by many of the big prosperity and word of faith preachers and teachers. Shame on them! Yet it is a wrong doctrine that feeds our flesh and allows our emotions and carnal lower nature room to express itself and grow while rejecting the truth. Just like with denominations it is all about money, influence, and power and the people eat it up. To see this truth were sin does not separate God from man all we have to do is read and rightly divide the Scriptures. In Genesis after man disobeyed God and ate of the fruit from the "Tree of Knowledge and of Good and Evil" we find God in the garden not separated from man because of his sin, but calling his name looking to have a time of communion with man. In Genesis we read, "And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? 10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself." (Genesis 3:9-10) God did not separate Himself from man when he sinned oh no on the contrary. Because of God's love for man God came closer trying to redeem man. A few Chapter later in Genesis we read where Cain kills his brother Abel. "And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper? 10 And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.' (Genesis 4:9-10) and even in this horrific murder and sin God never separated himself from Cain in his sin. Nowhere in the Bible has God ever said I will turn away from man because he has sinned so. What a wonderful love God has for man. What a wonderful truth. Now notice the opposite can happen in man's life. Man can separate himself from God by rejecting again and again the loving drawing of the Holy Spirit to the point that man drifts away into a reprobate mind where man has no desire for God. I do not understand how this could happen (as I do not understand why a holy God would want to live inside of us see Ephesians 2:22), but God is a holy and righteous God and will uphold His eternal word. We read, "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;" (Romans 1:28) and "They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate." (Titus 1:16) This is not God separating Himself from man, but man separating Himself from God. God's love for man is unconditional, but not so with man. Back in Romans we read, "For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die 8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him." Romans 5:6-9) What unconditional love. My friend where can we run to separate ourselves from the presence of God? David said, "Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? 8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there." (Psalm 139:7-8) You know if God separates Himself from man because of sin then God would have separated Himself from His own son Jesus while on the cross which is not true. I hear many preachers and teachers says because of sin God had to turn His back on Jesus while on the cross and even quote scripture, "And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34) How foolish to think God separated Himself from Jesus because He became sin for us on the cross. God every day of our lives looks at our sin, but "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us." (1 John 1:8-19) If God separated Himself from Jesus on cross then God will separate Himself from us. But that is not what Jesus said. Oh no in Matthew Jesus said, "Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen" (Matthew 28:20). And you know what He means it! Written by David Stahl

DOING FOLLOWS THINKING

There is a critical spiritual principle that the LORD has been working into my spirit lately and that is "doing follows thinking." Our doing in and out of God follows whatsoever we think. We will go nowhere in that we have not yet thought about first. I can go to Germany (which I have never been to before) by just thinking about it or imagining what it would be like. Our thought life is what drives our physical life. There is no sin we will ever commit without first thinking about it. There is no good act that God has ordained in our lives that we first did not think about. The longer I go in God the more I see and understand how God communicates with us through our thoughts, our thinking. In Proverbs some of my favorite verses in the Scriptures are, "Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats: 7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is notwiththee8 The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words." (Proverbs 23:6-8) As we think in our heart we shall be that, but if we get the wrong understanding from what we think we will be wrong. I can sit in a garage all day and think I am a car and even go beep beep, but that will never make me a car. Our thinking and understanding must align with the reality of what God wants us to do. If not we will get into trouble with God and man. If our wanting to understand at times can overrides what God wants us to know then we will get into trouble with God and man. Wanting to know out of God's plan got Eve (and the entire world) into a lot of trouble. Today we still suffer from Eve's lack of understanding and her wanting to know things that God did not want her to know. We again must want to know what God wants us to know. Anything more will get us into trouble with God and man. This thinking and our thoughts even gets down to the ministry of God's word. The word of God (a message and not a sermon) that we receive from God is from our thoughts/thinking. When we have an opportunity to minister God's word He will drop some thoughts in our thinking/thoughts and we will get an understanding of what He wants us to communicate to the people. God may even drop a burden in our heart, but for sure He will give us the thoughts on which to build His words from. And out from these thoughts is much external word (what we can write down) and out from the external word we will get the internal word where the Spirit of God dwells and what we share that gives life, the life of God for the people. The key is to get the correct understanding from our thinking /thoughts. If we get a wrong understanding then we will get the wrong message. I have seen and heard this play out in lives for years. People push for an understanding and what they get is a wrong understanding. You know it is one thing not to know and have a wrong understanding, but it is another thing and worse not to know you do not know and you have a wrong understanding. Now if we push for an understanding we will get one make no mistake (no pun intended) it may be wrong, but it is an understanding none the less. For some people sadly this is okay because it fits their agenda and philosophy in ministry. Sadly I have seen this play out for years also. Wrong understanding will lead us over into presumption; thinking we know what is right, but in reality it is wrong. In Philippians we can see this presumption play out if we do not have the right understanding. Paul writes, "Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. 6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanks giving let your requests be made known unto God. 7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:5-7) Here if we stay in the right context of these verses we will get a right understanding and there is even a great safety net that will prevent us from getting into trouble with God and man. Yes we are to let our needs be known to God there is no question about this, but that is all we do. Then (and only then) "the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" we will not get over into presumption and get into trouble with God and man. Yet again and again I hear pastors and teachers tell people if they do not hear from God keep on asking, seeking, and knocking. They take the verses in Luke and Matthew out of context (twisting them) and try to beat God over His head with His own word. In Luke we read the words of Jesus, "And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. 10 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." (Luke 11:9-10) Now if you stay with the context of what Jesus was saying and look at the words you will find Jesus was not saying to keep asking, seeking, and knocking till God answers. I cannot begin to tell you of the numbers pastors and teachers I have heard spin this yarn getting people all worked up and when God does not answer they get disappointed and often fall out of God to the point they totally walk away from God. No my friend get out of the emotional realm and open up your spiritual understanding and Bible. Just ask and it will be given to you? Really? Just seek and you shall find? Really? Just knock and it shall be opened? Really? Jesus was not saying this at all. Jesus was not saying keep on bombarding heaven (as many pastors and teachers say) with your asking, seeking, and knocking till God surrenders and answers your prayer. This asking, seeking knocking teaching is nothing more than a works based performance religion where if I pray long, loud, and hard enough God will finally hear my prayer and answer it. Now read the verses with understanding. "For every one that asketh receiveth;" (it may not be what you were asking for, but if you ask for something you will receive something and it may not be from God) "and he that seeketh findeth;" (so too if you seek and seek you will find something, that is a part of our human nature we seek because we want to find something. We have this need in us to find something instead of waiting on God) "and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." (we knock and knock on this door and that door and if no one answers we keep knocking till someone answers the door we are knocking on, but probably depending on the number of doors we have knocked on it will not be the door God wants to open to us.) Jesus was warning us. Jesus was saying to take heed in our asking, seeking, and knocking because we will probably get some things in our push for understanding (may not be God's understanding) that will be more destructive to our walk with the LORD than what the LORD has for us if we can wait on Him and receive. Does not God know what we need? Do we really need to ask, seek, and knock till God answers? I know when our kids were growing up and they wanted something (that I wanted to give them) they would ask and I would say okay. Now it is up to me when, where, and how to give them what they ask for, but if they kept bugging me (thinking they will get it sooner trying to manipulate me like many Christians try to do to God) their repeated pleads and petitions for what they have already asked me would become faint in my ears (even though I loved them very much) and would delay till they had the right heart condition to receive what they asked. In Matthew Jesus told the disciples and us, "Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Where withal shall we be clothed?32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things." (Mathew 6:31-32) Does not the Father know what we need? So what is all of this asking, seeking, knocking? Can we not just trust in God without all of this religious arrogance? Oh I know I am going after some of the religious sacred cows, but it is high time for the Body of Christ to stop all of this "look see pigeon" (what the Chinese would say) when you release a pigeon from a cage that you paid good money for. It is suppose to make you feel good. The next few verses in Luke 11 says, "If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?12Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" (Luke 11:11-13) Do you see that? If we ask for bread is God going to give us a snake? No He knows what we need. He even knows bread may not be (even though we have asked) what we need, but since God knows what we need He will give us what we need in His good time. I asked God about going to Nepal recently and in spite of having all of the resources and planning done God gave me what He wanted me to have (because He loves me) what I needed, but it was not what I wanted. God is good at this. If you walk with the LORD any time you will find His love for us overshadows our begging for things we think we need. In God's answer is always the right understanding. We need not to ask, seek, or knock all we have to do is just in obedience receive what God has for us. If we get our thinking wrong then our doing can only be wrong. It is not we are doing wrong (that seems to be our focus because our actions reveal our doing) but in reality our wrong doing happens as we again and again think wrong. Written by David Stahl